Lawrence Cutajar 'surprised,' 'hurt' his government contract was terminated

Former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar said Thursday he was ‘surprised’ when the government suspended his contract as consultant on public safety and 'hurt' when it terminated it. Cutajar was made a government consultant within hours of stepping down as police chief in January. His contract was suspended after Times of Malta reported how recordings led investigators to fear that he may have leaked information about the pending arrest of Melvin Theuma, the self-confessed middleman in the Daphne Caruana murder plot. Cutajar denied the claims. The contract was terminated last week. “I was surprised when the contract was suspended. That was the same day that Melvin Theuma said in court that he did not know me and had not spoken to me,” Cutajar told Saviour Balzan when interviewed on the TVM programme Xtra. And, Cutajar added, he was hurt when the contract was terminated last week “on the basis of what somebody told somebody else”. (The conversation, mentioned in court, was between Johann Cremona, a business associate of Yorgen Fenech, and Theuma.) Cutajar said Theuma might have been bluffing to give the impression he knew many people. The government announced it was...